Despite convoluted descriptions of Barack Obama's position on abortion, it has become quite clear that it is anything but "nuanced."
Dave Andrusko, writing for the National Right to Life, lays out Obama's strategy:
It is one thing to say that there are many people of faith who will not necessarily vote for the pro-life candidate just because he or she stands up for unborn children. It is quite another to say that these same people wouldn't be aghast if they had any idea how militantly, across the board (and beyond) anti-life Obama actually is.But, if you look at his record you'll find the story Obama doesn't want you to know:The key to Obama's forays into the Christian community is to convince its various and diverse membership that if he's not exactly in the mainstream, he is at least close. That while he is "pro-choice," he's really serious about "reducing the number of abortions."
In other words, please don't look at my record. If you do you will see the ultimate Stepford Husband, a guy who will do anything the PPFAs and NARALs and NOWs of this world tell him to do.
- Obama wishes to vaporize the Hyde Amendment. As pro-abortionists themselves are the first to acknowledge (ruefully), the Hyde Amendment saves lives--at a minimum one million!
- In addition to ending that proven abortion-reducer, Obama "wants to enact a mandatory national health insurance program that would also mandate coverage of abortion on demand." The multiplier effect of this initiative is almost incalculable.
- Obama can't wait to sign into law the "Freedom of Choice Act." FOCA would terminate other proven abortion-reducing laws, such as women's right to know laws, waiting periods, and parental notification laws. These laws have saved countless lives, but no matter. As Obama told the Planned Parenthood Action Fund in 2007, "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing that I'd do."
- Obama even goes so far as to "advocates repeal of the national ban on partial-birth abortions (which the FOCA would also accomplish)."
- Finally while a member of the Illinois state Senate, Obama "led the opposition to legislation to provide protection and care for babies who are born alive during abortions," as NRLC has thoroughly documented at http://www.nrlc.org/ObamaBAIPA/WhitePaperAugust282008.html. He was no passive spectator, but the ringleader.
the Hyde Amendment saves lives--at a minimum one million!
Aside from the babies' lives (which mean zilch to abortion fanatics), the Hyde Amendment has probably saved women's lives as well.
After the Hyde Amendment went into effect, some states immediately picked up the tab for elective abortions that had previously been paid for by the Federal government. Others, like Texas, respected the right of taxpayers to refrain from paying for the killing of fetuses. The Centers for Disease Control did a study which compared those states where funding was provided with states that did not pay for elective abortions.
What did they find?
In states that did NOT pay for abortions, they found no change in the number and proportion of public-pay patients hospitalized for illegal abortions and miscarriages. So the prediction that there would be a surge in dangerous illegal abortions turned out not to be true.
But they also found that in states that did NOT pay for abortions, publicly funded hospitalizations for complications of legal abortions decreased significantly.
If there are fewer complications, then there are also going to be fewer deaths from those complications.
We can't know how many women are alive today because the Hyde Amendment kept them from climbing onto some seedy abortionist's table.